Global classrooms: Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany
By Grace Sanborn ’25
Students spent the break hopping trains between Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany with Joshua Sanborn, David M. ’70 and Linda Roth Professor of History and Russian and East European studies program chair, and Lindsay Ceballos, assistant professor of Russian and East European studies.
Focused in the cities of Kraków, Prague, and Berlin, the course traced major conflicts over the last 100 years—including World War II and the Holocaust, the Cold War and Soviet Occupation, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine—and how those conflicts impact memory, culture, and national identity.
Olivia Naum ’26, who is a history and Russian and East European studies double major, says the course allowed her to study abroad with her “two favorite professors” and connect to her interests.
She notes that the course allowed her to think about how different cultures understand their history differently.
“The way German people understand World War II is very different from how Polish people are understanding World War II,” Naum says. “It was interesting to see how that kind of cultural ideas about their history came across through their historical sites and museums.”
Students toured sites of trauma, including the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Stasi prison in Berlin, but also engaged with people currently affected by conflict, including refugees of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The visit to Auschwitz is always a transformative moment for students,” Sanborn says. “We had done readings on the Holocaust, and many students reckoned with their family history and the scale of murder at that site.”
Ceballos notes that a visit to the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków was particularly impactful.
“We met with a woman who as a young girl was subjected to Dr. Mengele’s pseudo-scientific, excruciatingly painful experiments at Auschwitz-Birkenau,” Ceballos says. “Her testimony of suffering and survival moved our students deeply. These interim courses put you in near constant contact with your students, and you’re able to see how the heavy itinerary weighs on them and incites them to self-reflection.”
